Mt Diablo: Grand Loop (w/fire zone) - Feb 12 2017

2017.
SF Bay Area.
Bay Area 2017.
Morgan Fire Recovery page.
As with my usual fire zone visits, I started at Oak Knoll, but today I took a different and longer route. North on the Juniper Trail to Juniper camp, then much of the "Grand Loop" route: Deer Flat, Deer Creek, Murchio Gap, Prospector's Gap (via the fire roads), and Devil's Elbow. I then took the Summit Trail back to Oak Knoll.

Diablo Ranch down the hill from Juniper Campground. The deciduous oaks are still not in leaf, but the grass is definitely getting greener.

Nemophila menziesii (baby blue eyes). First of these for the year. They were pretty common on parts of the descent from Juniper Camp to Deer Flat, and, with similar elevation and exposure, on the ascent to Prospector's Gap.

A view across the Deer Creek valley. The road up to Merchio Gap is a the left. North peak at the right center. The main peak is tucked under the tree branches at the far right. (And an oak nicely adorned with American mistletoe at the lower left.)

Buckeyes beginning to send out roots.

Between Deer Flat and the Deer Creek crossing I hit this section of flooded road. Lots of poison oak on both sides. I've seen this before in wet years and it turned me back. Today, I waded. Good solid gravelly bottom, but I got within 6" of my waist. (Suffice to say, seasonal and ephemeral streams well all running strong today.)

By Deer Creek, clusters of ladybugs.

Lots of activity -- of all sorts -- when you look up close. (27 second video -- click to play -- alternate version at the end of the gallery.)

Bigberry manzanitas in bloom on the climb to Merchio Gap.

Pedicularis densiflora (Indian warrior). Two plants were in bloom under the Manzanitas up by Merchio Gap. I saw no others, even in leaf, on the rest of the hike. This must be a *very* favorable spot. It's very early for them.

The north peak from a little above Prospector's Gap. I'm in the Morgan Fire zone now, but this almost looks "normal". Fewer standing dead trees, green (if thin) grass, and expanding shrubs all help.

Along the trail back here, the scrub oaks are coming back, but the burn-out skeletons from 2013 remain.

Myriopteris sp. (lip fern). There are several Myriopteris species on Mt. Diablo, not all of which have pictures on Calflora. M. covillei photo-matches best ... but not all *that* well.

The usual view from Devil's Elbow to the shoulder below Devil's Pulpit. The Sierras show faintly in the background. Yosemite should be toward the right of the screen.

Here's a crop from a Sierra Nevada view from a bit east of the Devil's Pulpit shoulder. It has all the photo enhancement I can muster. For the identification, I'm using http://www.summitpost.org/southern-yosemite-from-mt-diablo/692769, with some help from Goggle Earth and BaseCamp. From this angle, most of Yosemite Valley is obscured. At best the top of Half Dome might show in an even higher-resolution picture with the right light. This is all iffy. I'm more comfortable with the Clark Range identifications than I am with Mts. Lyell, MacClure and the Valley.

This oak burnt hard but now, 3 years later, has re-sprouted along many of it's branches. Below Devil's Elbow.

While some burnt areas are still rather scraggly, other are now looking pretty good. Here, where there was once open ground, there's now a robust cover of chamise, yerba santa, pitcher sage, toyon, and ceanothus (although I see none of the latter in this photo). The usual road view is right around the corner, but because it was almost dead into the sun, that shot wasn't workable today.